The unexpected way this D.C. clothing store is helping women who lost their government jobs

Over the years, the label M.M. LaFleur has gone beyond helping its customers look good for the office—it’s also helped them find new professional opportunities during hard times.

During the pandemic, it launched a Slack channel to help customers who had been laid off find a new job. It hosts networking events so customers can get to know other women in their industry. And now, as the Trump administration lays off thousand of government employees, M.M. LaFleur is rallying the troops to provide support.

The New York-based womenswear brand first realized something was amiss in January, when it saw sales dipping in its two stores in the Washington, D.C. area. These stores serve women who work in politics and government, along with the lobbyists and lawyers whose work intersects with those fields. “D.C. is our second biggest market after New York,” says Sarah LaFleur, the brand’s founder and CEO. “We could tell that there was a lot of anxiety among our D.C. customers because of the looming job cuts.”

The team began to think about how they could help these customers. It has already hosted a résumé review session. It has brought in authors who are experts on changing careers and building confidence. And it is hosting an event where people can get professional headshots taken for just $30.

Sarah LaFleur, the brand’s founder and CEO, believes these efforts to support customers are crucial to building a lifelong relationship with them. And more broadly, she feels these efforts keep her, and her employees, passionate about their work. “If you asked us to measure the ROI of these events, I don’t think we could,” says LaFleur. “But helping women is the reason we got into this business.”

Unfortunately, there are likely to be many more government job cuts, and workers in other industries are expected to lose their jobs because of the new tariffs. M.M. LaFleur’s approach offers a new model of corporate social responsibility focused on a brand’s immediate community and customers, rather than issues further afield.

An Unusually Intimate Approach

While most brands try to cultivate relationships with their customers, they tend to do so at a distance, using social media. But from the start, M.M. LaFleur has taken a much more hands-on approach that is more common in very high-end luxury brands.

M.M. LaFleur is known for creating “Bento Boxes” for customers, full of outfits they like. A team of stylists put these boxes together, and try to build personal, long-term relationships with their customers, helping them navigate through life changes, from new jobs to pregnancies. “These stylists are at the frontlines of our business,” says LaFleur. “They have heard a lot of stories from D.C. customers struggling with this period of instability.”

The brand also throws lots of store events that are centered around career development. They offer an opportunity for women to make friends and build their professional network. Over the years, customers have found jobs and met collaborators through these events and, at the end of each, M.M. LaFleur connects attendees by sharing everyone’s contact information (with their approval), so people can forge relationships outside of the brand.

Indeed, this culture of intimacy has helped the company when it faced its own troubles. Last year, I reported about how M.M. LaFleur faced an an existential crisis when its lender went under and its working capital was about to dry up. In the end, a group of female investors, who happened to be customers, rallied together to invest $3 million in the company to keep it afloat. Now LaFleur wants to use the brand platform to bring together female investors for other startups in need of funding.

For LaFleur, this intimacy with customers is key to building a long-term relationship. “We don’t just want to be there at one point in your career when you need a new outfit,” she says. “We want to be there for all the twists and turns, and this means, being there for you in the difficult times as well.”

Customers Affected by DOGE Cuts

Now, there are many people facing hardships because of the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs. So far, more than a hundred thousand federal jobs have been cut. While these roles are spread out across the country, many are concentrated in the capital.

The M.M. LaFleur team has hosted its $30 headshot event in other stores in the past, but now it seems D.C.-customers are in particular need of this support. A link to the event was posted on a resource board for job seekers in the federal government, and spots were filled within hours. Now the D.C. store is planning to offer two more of these sessions.

To help attendees feel their best, there will be makeup artists on hand to provide touch-ups. And M.M. LaFleur’s stylists are there to help them put together an outfit that they feel will best represent them on their job hunt. “In the past, government jobs have been fairly stable, so they’ve been in these roles for years,” says Maria Costa, M.M. LaFleur’s director of brand, who has been involved in crafting these events. “Now they need to apply for new jobs. It can be very emotional for them because they haven’t had to present themselves in this way for a long time.”

M.M. LaFleur has also partnered with a local woman-owned bookshop, Old Town Books, to help program other career events. It brought on authors to talk about how to perfect your pitch at an interview, how to reduce your mental load during times of stress, and how to crack the confidence code. It also hosts résumé review events with career coaches.

These are similar to events that M.M. LaFleur has done in the past. But in D.C., they have taken on a new urgency, as customers are struggling. But given that the brand has the infrastructure and experience to effectively throw these events, the in-store team can do more of these events quickly to keep up with the demand.

For LaFleur, these events aren’t just good for customers and members of the community. They keep her and her team passionate about the work that they do every day. And she thinks this is valuable. “We make clothes, but our mission is about much more than clothes,” she says. “We’re in the business of empowering women to thrive in the workplace.”